Upheavel as a Catalyst for Creativity, the 2026 Left Coast Annual at Sanchez Art Center

Upheavel as a Catalyst for Creativity, the 2026 Left Coast Annual at Sanchez Art Center

The 2026 Left Coast Annual Exhibition, on view April 10 through May 10 at Sanchez Art Center, will open with an evening reception Friday, April 10 from 7 – 9 pm.  Juror Scott A. Shields, Ph.D., Ted and Melza Barr Chief Curator and Associate Director, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, selected 50 pieces from a remarkable group of more than 1,000 entries by artists from all five states that rim the Pacific Ocean (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington).  Reflecting on the submissions, Shields noted, “We are, at this moment, experiencing a period of profound insecurity, one in which intersecting crises ranging from war, pandemics, environmental degradation, and intense political polarization have left many both literally and figuratively displaced and destabilized. Because art reflects its time, many of these realities are manifest in the pieces I reviewed for the 2026 Left Coast Annual at the Sanchez Art Center.”

His further thoughts highlight how, “Political views are prevalent though not always overt, many of the best submissions presenting their messages with cleverness and subtlety. Overall, what this exhibition makes most clear is that upheaval can serve as a catalyst for creativity. It can also challenge us to redefine our values, cultivate resilience, and maintain a sense of hope for a more stable future.”

The result of the juror’s thoughtful consideration is an exhibition of textures, a stimulating array of materials, subtle tones, black, white and silver mixed with pops of color, and poignant themes.  Doug McCune explores our fraught relationship with modern technology.  Working in bronze, his “Planned Obsolescence” depicts discarded phones piling up, and asks viewers to contemplate their own relationships with the devices that increasingly mediate their experience of the world.   Another piece in the exhibition, similarly reflecting on technology, is “311 Megabytes” by Alan Grinberg.  The digital photography piece contrasts strict geometric order with printed and handwritten labels, evoking personal memory embedded in an obsolete technology.  Memories also shaped the work of Gretchen Telzrow, who reflects what it feels like to live with the loss of her mother.  “In the Depths of Memory”, a short video installation with images of water and movement, follows how grief shows up with the discovery of everyday life through the objects left behind, memories that surface unexpectedly, and moments where the artist feels pulled under and then comes back up again.  Olena Kuznetsova, works through the personal and community grief of the Ukrainian Diaspora, with “The First Day of the War”, a photographic work.  Olga Bologo’s piece, “Dreams as They Pass By” created with watercolors, depicts a dreamlike industrial landscape dissolving into sky.  The artist notes, “Like childhood visions found in passing shapes, the scene hovers between imagination and reality, allowing smoke to read as both industrial pollution and fleeting forms shaped by memory and perception.”  Ruth Tabancay, focuses our attention on global warming resulting from the burning of fossil fuels that are also used to manufacture plastics.  Her “Plastic Reef” is an assemblage of crocheted pieces and all colors of plastic used to create an assemblage highlighting human consumption.

Within this rich variety, each work stands alone, without a singular thematic though with a through line that connects humanity within the context of shared environment and practices.

Don’t miss the in person Juror’s Talk and Artists Gallery Walk the afternoon following the opening, beginning at 1:30 pm on Saturday, April 11. Juror Scott Shields will share about his work, experience jurying the show and her selections, with the artists in the show who are available to speak to their selected works.

In the East Gallery, the 2025 LCA Exhibition Awards Show presents the works of Madelyn Covery and Michele Foyer.  These artists, chosen by 2025 Left Coast Annual juror Carin Adams, Senior Curator of Art, Oakland Museum of California, have unique processes and approaches to their artistic practices.

Madelyn Covey currently focuses her art practice on people and how they perform aspects of their identities or inner selves. She has always loved painting portraits of her friends, community members, and pop culture obsessions, using housemates, folks dressed up at comic book conventions, celebrities, and screencaps of TV shows as subject matter.  The current portraits being shown are part of a series that reflects on domesticity and intimacy as part of an evaluation of the artist’s life trajectory through portraits of lovers, close friends, and my friend’s children.

Creating on found wallpaper, the artist reflects how this base layer is both a reference to the domesticity of the work, as well as a way to build the paintings in relationship to what already exists on the surface. Covey notes, “Painting on found surfaces adds context and texture, and satisfies my impulse to minimize waste. The process of matching the patterns to my subjects creates another layer of association. I find the meditation on my subject’s features and body language is a way for me to feel connected to them, and in that way more connected to the world.”

Madelyn Covey is a Richmond, CA based artist working primarily in painting and drawing.  She was born in Sacramento, CA, and has been an East Bay resident since 2005.  She received her MFA in Fine Arts from Mills College in 2012 and my BA from UC Berkeley in 2008. She currently facilitates painting and drawing at Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, as well as their Saturday Youth Program.

Michele Foyer merges collage, painting and sculpture in dynamic works that suspend off the wall. Through an intuitive process of folding, painting, cutting and layering paper, she creates complex compositions where color and shape emerge together. Fluorescent hues painted on the reverse side cast an immaterial glow of color on the wall that shifts with light, time, and place. Fluctuating light forms the true “ground” of each piece.

This interplay of light, color, and shape invites the viewer to peer under, behind, and through the works, while offering multiple paths for discovery within. The sculptural paintings remain open and subject to the mutation of these shifting and colliding perspectives. In a constant state of transformation, her art embodies how everything – our thoughts, sense of self, the objects and things of our environment – are perpetually being reconstituted and are full of incongruity, as well as possibility.

Michele Foyer holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, a BFA from the California College of the Arts, and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley. She has exhibited extensively across the United States in both solo and group shows.

Both the 2026 Left Coast Annual and the LCA Exhibition Awards Show open Friday, April 10, with an evening reception from 7 – 9 pm, with live music by the Blue on Green with Rob Wullenjohn.  Following opening night, gallery hours are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 1–5 pm, through Sunday, May 10, with exceptions during special events (SVOS and Art x Nature x Art). Also following opening night, the artworks selected for the 2026 Left Coast Annual will be available online in the Sanchez Art Center virtual gallery accessible through the website.

Art x Nature x Art, Sanchez Art Center’s spring fundraiser, pairs natural floral creations inspired by art in the 2026 Left Coast Annual.  The inspirations are created specifically for this event by talented local floral designers who collaborate with us with thanks to Nancy Victoria Davis, Shelldance Gardens.  This annual event will be held the final weekend of the Left Coast Annual exhibits, with a special ticketed reception Fri, May 8, will be available on Eventbrite, $30.00 in advance, and includes live music, floral mocktails, and more.  On Saturday, May 9 and Sunday, May 10, the last days of the exhibitions, entry will be $10.00 with the natural floral creations still available to view, as we continue the celebration of spring, art and Moms!    Funds raised will provide ongoing opportunities for the community to view outstanding exhibitions and participate in community creative engagement activities.

Sanchez Art Center is located at 1220 Linda Mar Boulevard in Pacifica, about a mile east of Highway 1. For more information, visit www.SanchezArtCenter.org or email info@sanchezartcenter.org.